A correction

Much is being made of the Oriental Post, Botswana's first Chinese newspaper, about which I blogged in early June. The surrounding hype is, however, somewhat misleading. Last week, France 24's The Observers ran a story on the newspaper, heralding the arrival of "Africa's first Chinese newspaper." A similar kind enthusiasm was echoed in a post on Appfrica, and picked up by Bill Easterly and Blood and Milk's Alana Shaikh on their respective Twitter pages. My, how quickly news spreads!

Yet while the Post is Botswana's first Chinese newspaper, it surely is not the first in all of Africa. The Western African United Business Weekly, a Chinese newspaper run out of Lagos, Nigeria, has been in circulation since 2005. China Express has been publishing out of Johannesburg, South Africa (a SADC member), since 1994. And there may well be additional Chinese-language papers in other parts of the continent about which we are unaware. The Chinese community has been quite active in Cape Verde since the mid-1990s, for instance; I wouldn't be surprised if they have by now established a foothold in the country's print media.

While the Oriental Post further signals China's growing fascination with the African continent - and indeed the mass migration of Chinese to Africa - it is not novel in any way (save but signaling a significant intensifying of Sino-Botswanan relations). To state otherwise is, unfortunately, quite inaccurate.

A new take on the bottom (three) billion

Three billion individuals. That's the approximate number of people that would be scrapped if we were to eliminate the bottom 5% global GDP contributors, the vast majority of which are found in either Africa or Southeast Asia. 81 countries comprise this bottom 5%. Together they represent half of the 192 UN member states and nearly 43% of the world population.

What would the world look like without them? Via Strange Maps we are offered a glimpse:

In reverse order of magnitude the 81 countries are:

Zimbabwe, Burundi, DR Congo, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea, Malawi, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Niger, Afghanistan, Togo, Guinea, Uganda, Madagascar, the Central African Republic, Nepal, Myanmar (Burma), Rwanda, Mozambique, East Timor, the Gambia, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Lesotho, Ghana, Haiti, Tajikistan, the Comoros, Cambodia, Laos, Benin, Kenya, Chad, the Solomon Islands, Kyrgyzstan, India, Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Mauritania, Pakistan, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Ivory Coast, Zambia, the Yemen, Cameroon, Djibouti, Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Nigeria, Guyana, the Sudan, Bolivia, Moldova, Honduras, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Bhutan, Egypt, Vanuatu, Tonga, Paraguay, Morocco, Syria, Swaziland, Samoa, Guatemala, Georgia, the Congo, Iraq, Armenia, Jordan, Cape Verde, the Maldives, Fiji and Namibia.

It is equally curious to note which countries are not included among the bottom 5%. Any surprises?

Cape Verde: Gateway to the world

Over the course of my research I've come to familiarize myself with Cape Verde - a tiny country off the western coast of Africa, and the focus of Jason DeParle's brief multimedia in the NYTimes. Cape Verde has for a long time been the mecca of global migrants. While the flow of migration has generally been from the country, the reality is quickly beginning to reverse itself, particularly in the face of the new wave of Chinese migrants.

In the past, Chinese overseas migration was largely driven by politics: today, business is the new watchword. The Chinese are chasing after oil, timber and other natural resources all across Africa. More than this, however, they are quickly establishing small-scale Chinatowns and setting up shops in countless city centers.

At the end of 2003, there were 27 Chinese shops in Sao Vincente, Cape Verde's second largest city. This is a five-fold increase since the mid-1990s. Each shop sells Chinese clothes, shoes, travel accessories, kitchenware and other knickknacks, and together these shops are driving out local businesses or forcing them to diversify the products they sell. Similar realities exist in Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Nigeria - indeed, all over the African continent. 

Until recently, scholars of Sino-African relations have overlooked these micro-level encounters. Yet it is perhaps here that our attention should be focused. My guess is that China's resource grab isn't going to last indefinitely, whereas Chinese shops and restaurants are seemingly here to stay. Cape Verde is just one case in point. Understanding the organization and business strategies of these small-scale businesses, as well as their relations with local society, may be a key to future development agendas and microfinance projects. It is, after all, at this lowest of levels that the true impact of 'China in Africa' is being felt.